The Billion Dollar Bachelor(43)

Love. She didn’t want love. Love was the strongest cage of all.

“And that’s why I have to go,” she said. “I’m sorry, Jax.”

If she didn’t leave now, she had a horrible feeling she never would.

*

Jax didn’t move as she went past him, going over to the couch to pick up her purse. Every fiber of his being screamed at him to turn. To grab her. To hold her tight. To never let her go.

He’d never felt anything so raw, like she’d torn off his skin and left all his nerve endings exposed.

Somehow she’d smashed the wall between himself and his emotions, the wall he’d carefully built and maintained, and now that it was in ruins, he didn’t know how to build it back up again.

His detachment was gone. Vanished. All he was left with was this burning, terrible need for her. Love. He’d known what it was the moment she’d pushed him away, the second she’d told him she wanted to leave. Only love would hurt this much. And only love would have made him forget himself enough to say what he should never have said.

After all, he’d done it once before, caught between love for his little brother and his mom, hurting and wanting to help them both. Ending up with nothing.

Just like he was ending up with nothing now.

Because his love was never enough, was it?

“If you leave now, you can’t ever come back.” He couldn’t keep the bitter anger from his voice. “Because I won’t let you go a second time.”

“Don’t worry,” she said, a cracked edge in her tone. “I won’t be coming back.”

His jaw ached he held it so tightly. “I’ll announce our split to the press tomorrow.”

“Jax …” His name was a breath at his back. “You don’t have to do that. We can keep up the pretense another week or so, can’t we? I don’t want Dad to—”

“You wanted your freedom, Pandora. So I’m giving it to you. You won’t have to deal with me or Morrow ever again.”

Silence behind him.

When she spoke, her voice was soft. “But what about the company? Did you find anything on Dad?”

“Let me deal with the company and your father. I was the one who got us into this mess, not you.” He closed his hands into fists. “Now go. Before I change my mind.”

He held himself very still as he heard her move away because if he made the slightest movement, he’d be turning and going after her. Locking the door so she couldn’t escape. Keeping her here.

He’d once thought he’d never do that to her, but love changed the equation. Made people do stupid things. And he didn’t trust himself around her, not an inch.

Her footsteps sounded on the floor as she made her way to the door. Then they receded, going down the hallway.

It’s good she’s going. She needs to be far away from you.

Yeah, it was a good thing. She needed to be free, not trapped and suffocated by him.

The front door of his apartment shut with a heavy, final sound.

Jax stood in his lounge, staring at the lights of the city in the darkness beyond, his hands in fists at his sides, a raw, angry pain throbbing in his chest.

She’d torn something from him and he knew what it was.

Snow White had taken his fucking heart.





Chapter 11


The hotel wasn’t the nicest but it was the best Pandora could afford on the one salary payment she’d gotten from Morrow. The wallpaper was dingy, the carpet old, there was a suspicious looking stain near one of the windows, and she could hear the couple next door having sex but hey, it could have been worse. She might have had to pay extra for the Internet.

Sitting cross-legged on the bed, her laptop open on her lap, Pandora opened her Web browser and typed in the URL of a major news Web site.

Jax had said he was going to break it off today and it would be good to know if that was the case. Along with her laptop, she’d grabbed a few clothes on her way out of the apartment yesterday, including a hat and sunglasses—she’d need them when the news broke and the press went nuts.

The ache that had settled behind her heart the moment Jax’s door had shut behind her, throbbed. Stupid. Leaving him had been the right thing to do. The only thing to do. She’d done it for herself so it really shouldn’t be hurting quite so damn much.

It wasn’t like she was in love with him or anything. Love was nothing but bars on a window. A key locking a door. A cage keeping you in. And she couldn’t stand that.

Freedom. That’s what she’d wanted. That’s all she’d wanted.

Blinking furiously against the prickling behind her eyes, Pandora glanced down at her laptop screen.

And there it was.

Morrow Calls It Quits. The engagement of the year is off as the relationship between Jax Morrow and fiancée Pandora Garret shatters … .